Man, it’s been a long week. I can’t tell whether it’s the dog, the cough or that I wrenched my knee on…Tuesday, I guess it was, in this blurry smudge of days. Some of you have Good Friday off, which makes me throw back my head and laugh and laugh and reflect I’ve never had Good Friday off in my life, except maybe from school.
Journalists get fewer holidays than anyone, because we all gotta work at least some of them.
But honestly, I don’t care. I could always quit. And I’m not quitting yet.
So. A friend gave me a copy of “Blood, Sweat & Chrome,” with a very long subtitle that boils down to “an oral history of ‘Mad Max: Fury Road.'” It’s been a while since I saw it, so I booted it up on Amazon Video Monday night, just to refresh. Then I remembered the GOP county delegate conventions were also being held Monday night, so I skittered between post-apocalyptic adventurer Max and GOP-convention Twitter, and it was a little hard to tell the difference:
I watched the absolutely unhinged Macomb County GOP convention so you don’t have to. Beloved Trumper Mark Forton was overthrown, with Eric Castiglia taking over as Chair. The meeting devolves into cursing & anger, one woman yelling, “You’re all for the New World Order! Fuck you!” pic.twitter.com/6WsTMt8IYx
— Left of Center MI (@leftofcentermi) April 12, 2022
Admittedly, that was the wildest, but that’s also the key MAGA county, Macomb, just north of us. The woman you hear on the video is Mellissa Carone, the messy-updo lady who was one of Rudy Giuliani’s star witnesses after the November 2020 election here. She’s gotten hard into politics in the aftermath, although she was just disqualified from her run for the state House, for submitting a faulty affidavit with her campaign finance report. She’s vowing to fight. We’ll see how that goes.
Macomb County is where the so-called Reagan Democrats were born, and you can see what they’re doing now – fighting viciously amongst themselves:
It was chaos tonight as the Macomb County (MI) GOP voted to oust party chairman Mark Forton. At various times, people were yelling “RINO” and “communist” at each other, among other things. pic.twitter.com/vYJQDMqqmC
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) April 12, 2022
What is one to do, observing such a spectacle? I’ll tell you: Not a damn thing. Other than note the resemblance between some members and Immortan Joe.
I’m so tired. I need to get out of the house more. Plus there was a police shooting in Grand Rapids week before last that is just now starting to be felt elsewhere, so there’s always a story in front of my face about it. Plus Trump endorsing Meemaw’s grandbaby, Elon Musk bidding for Twitter and Dianne Feinstein has full-on dementia. Is there no good news to be had in this rotten world?
Well, there’s this comedy bit:
TN Senator says Hitler made something of himself after being homeless & you can too. I’m going to have to apologize to the universe for this guy. Hey @MeidasTouch not a single day passes without TN GOP embarrassing the hell out of our state.😬 @meiselasb @meidasjordy @BMeiselas pic.twitter.com/SrNyGsS86B
— Rep. Gloria Johnson (@VoteGloriaJ) April 14, 2022
OK, you all. I’m done for now. Happy Easter, and I promise I’ll be better next week.
Dorothy said on April 14, 2022 at 5:50 pm
I’m positive I read something about Dianne Feinstein in the last year or two about how much her mental acuity was in decline, so that’s not a surprise. Let’s all hope she doesn’t drive anymore. I’m guessing she hasn’t for a long time anyway since she’s a senator. But holy moly, it’s sad there’s not a system in place to deal with those situations.
I’m parked at a Craft Museum in Columbus waiting for a quilt guild meeting to start. Had an eye doctor appt at 2 which took two hours (glaucoma patients take awhile). It seemed better to stay in the city rather than go home and come back. All I did was kill a half hour in North Market and then get pissed about paying $5 to park that long!
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David C said on April 14, 2022 at 5:56 pm
I’m betting St. Elon’s bid for Twitter is another pump and dump scheme with the stock he already bought. He got away with it before. There’s no amount the SEC can fine him that will even begin to take away how much he’ll profit.
It should be so fucking easy for the Dems. Just point a camera at the Rs and play it on a loop. Instead they’ll release a PowerPoint with lots of bullet points so you know they’re serious this time.
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alex said on April 14, 2022 at 5:59 pm
First he planted his slimy kiss of death on Oprahstein’s Monster, and now on Meemaw’s Grandbaby. Maybe he can plant one on Melissa Carone too and at force his lieutenants in Michigan to keep her in the race.
The Week in Cray-Cray has been exciting so far and it’s only Thursday.
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Jeff Borden said on April 14, 2022 at 6:34 pm
I’m not sure why, but J.D. Vance really pushes all my buttons. I’ve come to loathe him more intensely than Josh Mandel, who actually is likely even a bigger asshole than the fauxbilly Yalie investment banker cruising on Peter Thiel’s millions. First, I’m sorry, but I really disliked his book, which came off to me like victim blaming. Second, I’m sorry, but the man attended Yale and works among the 0.01% so his whole “aw shucks country boy” shit rings as false as tRump’s macho posturing. Third, he has zero principles as illustrated by his initial trashing of tRump before he bought his knee pads and began fellating the orange tumor. Fourth, he’s the hand puppet of another tech oligarch who lusts for a Senate seat.
Here in the Land of Lincoln, we have the black mayor of Aurora, Richard Irvin, running for governor as the hand-picked puppet of one Ken Griffin, the richest man in Illinois and one of the richest in the world with a net worth of $28 billion. Actually, Irvin has a great story to tell including 18 years as a defense attorney before he became a prosecutor and mayor. He’s a veteran of the first Gulf War. But he has erased any mention of his days defending others and is selling the whole “us vs. them” narrative. In one TV ad financed by Griffin, he declares he is the “worst nightmare” of liberals, who “hate Republicans who look like me and think like us.” Yeah, “think like us.” Fuck you, Richard. You’re just a useful idiot for a ludicrously rich man.
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Dexter Friend said on April 14, 2022 at 7:22 pm
Hitler. I can’t get away from him. Praised for rising from the homeless to high status, although this oaf says, “wail, an unproductive laaf”, but why inject Hitler as an example of anything but what his legacy left? Years ago Anthony Cumia of “The Opie and Anthony Show” displayed his huge collection of glorifying Hitler dolls on his webpage. I commented my disgust, and his lackeys told me to “get over it! It’s been 70 years!” Hitler rivals Jesus it seems as the most talked-about person ever. Both have zealots for supporters.
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Knowlson said on April 14, 2022 at 7:36 pm
Let them fight.
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Deborah said on April 14, 2022 at 7:48 pm
Ouch, sorry about the wrenched knee, sounds positively awful. LB is having a lagging cough which is making phone conversations with her difficult. She took a third Covid test at my suggestion, still negative. I had some allergy act up but no colds now for years, not looking forward to one. Fingers crossed.
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Peter said on April 14, 2022 at 9:47 pm
Dexter, some years back I saw a french film that took place in the 1950’s and the hero ran into a group of Nazis and said: “Oh my God – Evil Nazis!” and one of the Nazis said to him “Of course we’re evil Nazis. What other kind of Nazis are there? Comedic Nazis? Romantic Nazis? You know the war’s been over for ten years, you could give it a rest!”
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LAMary said on April 14, 2022 at 10:12 pm
About a half hour ago I thought Putin might be invading the west coast but it was just a flyover for the opening game at Dodger Stadium. Two F35s, flying lower than you’d expect scared my dog and cats. If you’re watching the Dodgers/Reds game you might have seen them too.
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Sherri said on April 14, 2022 at 11:20 pm
My husband is starting to feel a little better, but still Covid positive today. So far, I’m still negative, just tree pollen giving me a stuffy nose. We’re living in different parts of the house, and wearing masks whenever we’re in the same room. I’m really hoping to avoid catching it. My husband catching it already disrupted my birthday plans, but those can be rescheduled. I’m signed up to compete in a meet on April 30, and that would likely not happen if I get sick now. I’m also scheduled to go to an ACLU conference in LA in mid May, but I can’t go if I test positive for Covid after May 1.
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Dexter Friend said on April 15, 2022 at 1:01 am
LA Mary, a raucous sellout crowd at Dodger Stadium , louder than I have ever heard them, but maybe they upgraded the stadium mics to pick up more cheering and booing. They booed David Price when he gave up the tying home run then cheered wildly when Freeman doubled and scored the go-ahead run on T.Turners slicing single to right. And just now your boy Will Smith #16 just clubbed a 3 run dinger and this thing is about over. 7-3 LA.
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FDChief said on April 15, 2022 at 8:04 am
One of the most irritating things about the State of our Union is that while these moronic GQP plague rats will gleefully bite each other when they have no one else to bite, to consider them nothing but a comedic sideshow is kind of how we got here, where Margie Greene and Cawthorne and Gym Jordan have power over the rest of us sane people.
So mocking the Macomb County Mussolinis is fine, so long as you ensure you have them covered and a round under the hammer; they will stop squabbling and come at you the moment they sniff the faintest scent of a Liberal.
Like any other murderbot, they can’t be bargained with, they can’t be reasoned with, they don’t feel pity or remorse or fear, and they absolutely will not stop, ever, until you libs and your little gay or trans or POC friends are all dead.
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Mark P said on April 15, 2022 at 8:50 am
How many times have I said this? Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.
We’re toast.
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Mark P said on April 15, 2022 at 9:19 am
As if things weren’t bad enough, word from Russia is that the families of the elite have moved out of Moscow in anticipation of Putin using a nuke and starting WW III.
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Jenine said on April 15, 2022 at 9:51 am
FDChief is wise. But his turn of phrase also reminds me that if you need some science fiction, the Murderbot books are super entertaining. Plenty of adventure, snark and even some emotional development.
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LAMary said on April 15, 2022 at 10:54 am
Ronna McDaniel (Romney) says no more presidential debates unless the RNC runs the debate. She says that’s the only way it will be fair and the American public needs to hear what the GOP candidates have to say because only the GOP has the best interest of the American public in mind.
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tajalli said on April 15, 2022 at 11:33 am
Peter@8, this sounds like dialogue Inspector Clouseau would initiate in a Pink Panther film.
Those folks at that convention seemed screaming yellow bonkers for sure, completely non-rational.
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alex said on April 15, 2022 at 2:09 pm
The Republicans have been threatening to quit the debates for some time now, and why shouldn’t they? They have nothing substantive to say anyway, and their belligerent hijinks make them look bad to everyone but their imbecilic base who revel in the GOP owning the libs by making a mockery of the whole process.
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Deborah said on April 15, 2022 at 2:37 pm
I’ll be honest, I’m not sure debates do much good for either party. Most people watch for sport not information.
LAMary, I remember that feeling whenever a plane would fly overhead during the Cuban missile crisis when I was a kid in Miami.
Seems like Sen Mike Lee and Rep Chip Roy are going to go through some things. On the other hand the hard core base will be ecstatic to learn those guys were willing to do anything to overturn the election.
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Dexter Friend said on April 15, 2022 at 4:39 pm
Rand Paul’s ads for Mike Gibbons here in Ohio are gruesome. Paul’s head fills the entire screen as he says he needs Mike Gibbons alongside him in chambers. Still, all these wanna-be candidates for US Senate are screaming how much more “pro-Trump” they are compared to all the others. Mandel, “a hero” because he was overseas in uniform for a bit. Gibbons, cursed as a “big businessman”, therefore not a patriot, like Mandel. So it goes. There’s a man named Riedel who just spouts how much of a Trumper he is, and a believer in conservative values.
Like a cartoon someone posted on Facebook points out, Trump can’t run…he won in 2016 and he won in 2020, right? He, by Constitution, is done. Right? Doonesbury.
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Jeff Borden said on April 15, 2022 at 6:21 pm
Dexter, I think Ohio is over. Just over. I no longer recognize the people, the politics or the zeitgeist. No matter which QOP reprobate wins the Senate primary and, presumably, the election, they will join asswipes like Cruz, Hawley and Paul as the raging assholes in the chamber. This is what the majority of Ohioans want and, fuck, it is so sad. I still have family and friends there, but otherwise, there is nothing in my birth state that speaks to me. Under no circumstances would I ever even consider returning.
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LAMary said on April 15, 2022 at 8:04 pm
I wasn’t seriously thinking Putin was sending fighter planes over CA. It definitely got my attention, though. F35s are intimidating looking, like the stealth bomber that flies over my house at the beginning of Rose Parade. I used to get blimp traffic over the house before drones arrived. No more blimp cameras over Dodger Stadium or Pasadena these days.
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Dexter Friend said on April 16, 2022 at 12:02 am
The most startled/frightened I have ever been jolted into since I left the Vietnam war was when a “Flying Wing” stealth bomber flew over what was then called Jacobs Field in Cleveland. I had forgotten about the Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airshow taking place. That thing sucked all the air out of the stadium…wow, it was amazing. Imagine being under attack or in danger of an attack by that thing. I saw many attacks by Cobra gun ship helicopters as they worked out on hillsides in Vietnam. That was terrifying to imagine being on that hill. These bombers are like a million times more destructive.
I used to see the Goodyear airships powering over town frequently during football season, from base Akron to Chicago or towards South Bend for Notre Dame football games. It’s been a while now.
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Mark P said on April 16, 2022 at 1:23 am
I got to sit in the pilot’s seat (not really “fly”) of a Goodyear blimp back when I was a reporter in Augusta, Ga, in 1978. The blimp moored at the airport and all the news media were invited to go for a flight. The pilot let some of us sit in his seat as we floated over town. That gives you some idea of how slowly things happen in a blimp.
A week or so later it came back through and unzipped itself during a thunderstorm. The blimps had (have?) a safety device that literally unzips the envelope if the blimp breaks loose from its mooring. It was a pitiful sight with the gondola surrounded by a bunch of silver fabric.
If you Google it, you can find a story in the Augusta Chronicle describing it. The article doesn’t mention the safety device that unzips the envelope, but I’m pretty sure I’m right and the article is wrong. But it was a long time ago.
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basset said on April 16, 2022 at 12:13 pm
In maybe 1975 there was an open-air concert at Bush Stadium, then the minor-league baseball field in Indianapolis, the day before the 500. It was near the Speedway, so the pilots drove the blimp over the field, hovered, opened the windows and watched the show for awhile. Don’t remember who was on at the time, but ZZ Top headlined, in their pre-long beard days.
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Peter said on April 17, 2022 at 3:05 am
Basset, my favorite fact about ZZ Top – the name of the guy in the band who didn’t have a beard? Frank Beard.
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Dexter Friend said on April 17, 2022 at 3:18 am
Basset: the new stadium is named Victory Field. When I played baseball there in July of 1968 the old park with the half-ivy-covered brick wall was then called Bush Stadium, having prior been named Victory Field. Internet grab: “January 21, 1942
The Indianapolis Indians played their first game in the ballpark on September 5, 1931. It was renamed Victory Field on January 21, 1942, in response to the onset of World War II. The name was the winning entry of a fan contest held by the club’s new owners.”
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Suzanne said on April 17, 2022 at 8:17 am
This year more than ever, I am embracing the theme of resurrection and renewal at Easter.
I am also embracing those that have surrounded me with support, including all of you here that I have never met and don’t know personally but have been a valuable part of my life for several years.
To quote author Kate Braestrup “You know, the question isn’t whether we’re going to have to do hard, awful things, because we are. We all are. The question is whether we have to do them alone.”
Thankfully, I am not alone.
A blessed Easter to all of you.
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alex said on April 17, 2022 at 8:37 am
Speaking of resurrection, my partner and I are hosting our Easter open house again after two years of COVID. It has always been quite a mixed group, my partner’s archconservative Catholic family and our ultra-liberal circle of friends. In the past people always checked their political baggage at the door and I hope that tradition continues as well.
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jcburns said on April 17, 2022 at 12:49 pm
So Alex…you say “after two years of COVID” as if it’s in the past.
Are folks thinking that we’re done with Covid-19? Seriously?
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LAMary said on April 17, 2022 at 1:43 pm
I still mask up when I venture into stores or the bank or whatever and I assume the variant that’s hitting other cities will make it to LA eventually. Since I’m sort of a hermit anyway it’s not cutting into my social life very much and I’ve been working at home for most of the last five years so no change there. I’m getting the booster in the coming week so I can be around my offspring without a mask. The roadie son and the semi-roadie, semi assorted other jobs son wear masks when out and about too. Both off them worked a Ministry concert in San Diego the other day and they were, according to them, the only ones wearing masks. The pandemic isn’t over.
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basset said on April 17, 2022 at 2:24 pm
Helped with another dog run yesterday, getting a rescue Lab/Great Dane cross from Shreveport to Warren, Michigan… we took him from Hurricane Mills, Tennessee into Nashville, handed off to someone who kept him overnight, and this morning he was on the road again.
If the trip is still on schedule he’s just the other side of Cincinnati right now, with driver changes coming in Dayton, Lima, and Toledo before he reaches his “forever home” at 6:55 tonight.
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LAMary said on April 17, 2022 at 2:38 pm
Basset, if you get another great dane/lab mix let me know. I love both those breeds and I’m down one dog here.
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Sherri said on April 17, 2022 at 3:36 pm
Since I’ve had a sick husband all week, obviously I don’t think the pandemic is over. I got my second booster just before he got sick. I wear a mask in stores and still do takeout. I do go unmasked in small groups where I know everyone is vaccinated.
I am going to a conference in a month with about 500 people, but the Covid requirements are very strict: fully vaccinated and boosted, PCR test before arrival, KN95 masks everywhere.
My husband was exposed at church choir. Everyone was vaccinated, but I don’t know their booster status, and everyone was masked, but I don’t know what their masks were.
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Deborah said on April 17, 2022 at 3:42 pm
We are having a sunny but cold Easter Sunday in Chicago, I don’t think it’s going to make it out of the 30s. We took a walk up through Lincoln Park and it was dead, hardly any people out, even the lakefront is not in use much this afternoon. Maybe everyone is home having family Easter dinners or something. There are not even many people having brunch in the restaurants we passed on Rush St. In my former life Easter was a big deal, now it’s just another Sunday, I do give it some thought but we don’t do anything special.
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jcburns said on April 17, 2022 at 4:04 pm
I think the idea of having a (mask-free?) get-together with a bunch of people from a bunch of varied backgrounds at my house…? No, I think not.
You might “get away with it,” in that afterward no one reports getting symptoms…but is any one visitor carrying the virus on to someone else they or you may care about?
Hate to be such a downer, man, but, uh, pandemic.
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basset said on April 17, 2022 at 4:19 pm
LAMary, if Nancy will share my email with you I’ll put you in touch with the rescue group who sent us this one.
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Julie Robinson said on April 17, 2022 at 5:19 pm
No, I don’t think the pandemic is over, I think people just want to think it. I’m still masking in public. At church this morning, only D and I masked up during the passing of the peace, though I’m not shaking hands either. On a normal Sunday I know everyone there and know they are vaxxed, but we had double the normal numbers today and I don’t know anything about the guests. And my mom is getting so fragile; I don’t want to take it home to her.
basset, you’re doing God’s work.
Happy Easter to those who celebrate. In our house that meant two services (though personally I skipped sunrise), singing, a big lunch, and a good nap. Reading about 26° up north while it’s hot and humid here feels surreal.
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LAMary said on April 17, 2022 at 7:02 pm
basset, My older brother used to rescue Brittanies all over the country. He’d drive from NJ to North Carolina to pick up a dog. When he died his family requested donations to Brittany Rescue.
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Deborah said on April 17, 2022 at 7:32 pm
Julie, I had forgotten about Easter sunrise services. When I was a kid growing up in Miami, you’d think we would have those services on the beach, but no the Lutheran churches in our area had a joint sunrise service at a junky outdoor drive in theater. With scratchy sounding canned music coming in your car through the speaker that hung on the drivers side window. Sad. Not a pleasant memory.
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Jeff Borden said on April 17, 2022 at 8:10 pm
Covid-19 will be around forever as a monument to abject stupidity. A miracle cure for a deadly virus was created in an astonishingly short period of time, but almost 40% of the citizens of what is generally regarded to be the richest and most powerful nation on the planet said, “Fake news! Sheeple!” We are witnessing national seppuku.
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basset said on April 17, 2022 at 9:55 pm
Mrs. B and I helped start the Nashville golden retriever rescue twenty or so years ago, also have done some basset rescue but now our names seem to have gotten out into the rescue world and we just respond to requests for help… mostly English setters recently but this dog came from a Dane rescue in Texas that we’d never heard of.
He was due to reach his forever home about four hours ago, new owner said earlier that she would post when she got him settled.
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